Wuthering Dormice (aka Bike) Part 799 by Angharad

I hoped I’d got some distance from all the other players in this drama. I drove down the Taunton road and checked in at the Holiday Inn, where I ate my sandwiches and made myself some tea. I wasn’t on the ground floor and as far as I could tell was nowhere near anything that could be scaled to attack me. I could also see my car from the window. I was becoming very fatigued and needing some sleep. If I could get four hours, I’d be ready for some more action.

I ate my sandwiches and called Henry – at last I was able to speak with him.

“Any news on Simon?”

“Yes, they have him, they’re threatening to kill him unless I pass over a large number of share certificates to them, and a larger amount of money. What about the others?”

“The Mondeo was parked out the front of my house in Bristol, but no sign of Tom, Stella or the children. I did encounter one or two of the bogey-men, thankfully they didn’t see me.”

“Are you somewhere safe?”

“I hope so, but I can’t tell you where.”

“Okay, I’ve got your number, I’ll let you know if I learn anything new.”

“If they harm anyone, I will kill them all.” I felt very angry and anxious for my family.

“You can kill the ones I don’t get,” offered Henry.

“I’ll call tomorrow.”

“Be careful, Cathy.”

“You too, bye.” I rang off, I’d been on the phone less than a minute, I hoped that was too short to get a fix from, but I’m no expert in electronics.

I tried to sleep, but there was too much whizzing around my head. Were the family safe, was Bill on my side or was he with the enemy? Could he be from a third party? I mean were MI5 involved, or was he from some other security agency? If so, which? No wonder my brain was spinning–nothing made any sense – from start to finish.

I tried to set priorities, stay alive – that felt like a good idea, if it wasn’t achieved, lesser objectives were unlikely to be either. You couldn’t fault my logic on this one. Secondly – find the children, Stella and Tom and make sure they were safe. Finally, see what I could do to help Simon and prevent the takeover of the bank. Surely if that was achieved by foul methods it would be illegal? That was outside my knowledge – give me dormice any day.

Then I had a brainwave, I called Erin and explained my position to her and she came and got me and I spent the night at her house. She also had a spare car I could borrow, so I felt the next day would be a bit more in my favour.

I did eventually sleep, with her keeping a watch over me. Then after a light breakfast I set off in her second car, a BMW mini – very nice, and it complimented her other car, a bigger series 5 Beamer. Too big for me and far too ostentatious. I don’t need to say, ‘I’ve arrived,’ in fact at the moment, I’m trying to do the exact opposite.

Erin was going to speak with the Avon police – they look after Brissle. To try and discover where the family were. They could cover more ground than I could and they had several legal powers which I didn’t, such as power of arrest and to carry guns if necessary.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do next, until I got a text from Bil l– how did he get my phone number? ’Nice escape – meet me at Brunel bridge, 10 am, Bill.’

I was tempted to text back, ‘Why? but didn’t. Of course, I didn’t know if it was him or the Russians. Maybe they picked it up by monitoring Henry’s phone? The problem was I had no other leads to go on, so I was committed to taking the risk – or going to the police and letting them take it over. So far, they hadn’t done much better than I could by myself.

At nine, I was watching the bridge from some bushes a couple of hundred yards away. Okay, they could have been watching me or waiting even earlier, but at two minutes to ten, Bill walked across the bridge and towards me.

“Cathy, are you going to hide in those bushes all morning, or are we going to do this like adults?”

“Do what like adults?” I queried back.

“Sort out this problem with your family’s bank and this on-going difficulty with a certain Slavic country?”

“How do you propose we do that?” I called back from the bushes.

“I am not going to stand here pretending I’m Moses, talking to a bloody bush.”

“I thought it was burning bush, not a bloody one?” I called back, winding him up.

“I can arrange for it to be set on fire while you’re still in it, if you’d prefer to stay historically correct?”

“Okay, I’m coming out, don’t try anything.”

“Try anything? Like what did you have in mind?”

“I’ll kill you if I have to.” I said emerging from the bushes.

“So you keep telling me. It tends to have consequences in the United Kingdom.”

“Don’t tell me you have a licence to kill?” I sneered at him.

“No I don’t, but I suspect the authorities would be more sympathetic to one of its officials doing said dirty deed than a member of the public.”

“I would claim self-defence, because with you I think it would likely be true.”

“Cathy, I’m on your side.”

“So you keep saying, but where’s your evidence? Prove it. Where are my family?”

“They’re perfectly safe.”

“That isn’t good enough.”

“I can’t tell you, it would affect their safety.”

“How do I know you’re not lying to me?”

“You don’t, but they are safe, I promise you.”

“So why can’t you tell me?”

“If I did, we could be overheard.”

“We’re in the middle of nowhere.” He was surely bullshitting me.

“With directional mics, they could overhear us talking a mile or so away.”

“So, write it down, I’ll read it and eat the paper.”

“You’ve been watching too many spy films. If you know they could get it out of you.”

“I’d never tell them,” I asserted and felt confident of it.

“They could inject you with drugs which would mean you’d tell them anything.”

“That’s cheating!” I exclaimed.

“Cathy, this is not a cricket match, it’s not even a bike race – it’s practically a war.”

“Okay, how about taking me to see them?”

“Listen to me, if they follow us, then they’d be at risk again.”

“We could go in your car?” I suggested.

“You don’t seem to get the point, woman. If they follow you, your family will be at risk. I can’t allow that.”

“How come Henry doesn’t know either you or Ben?”

“Why should he?”

“He’s been on House of Lords security committees.”

“We don’t inform those old farts of everything we do, or we’d spend more time in committee than we did operationally.”

“I find that attitude disrespectful of our system of government.”

“What? Don’t tell me you’re a democrat?”

“Yes, but not in the American sense.”

“Idealists, good Lord preserve me from idealists.”

“What’s wrong with having ideals?”

“Nothing, not until you try to implement them and find out they don’t work.”

“You’re just saying that to protect your spooky position of running amok behind the scenes.”

“Running amok? Dear lady, we are more constrained by this blessed government than we have ever been. Red tape is alive and well and wrapped around Whitehall in triplicate.”

“Now I know you’re lying, you lot aren’t at Whitehall anymore.”

“Sez who?”

“MI5 are in that horrible place down by the Festival Hall.”

“I’ve never said I was MI5.”

“Who are you then?”

“I work for an organisation that doesn’t exist.”

“I know, you told me before – now stop the bull, tell me who you work for?”

“I can’t, but I’m on your side, Cathy, believe me.”

“I can’t, Bill, I think you’re one of them.”

“No I’m not, I’ve got a girlfriend and we have a kiddie.”

“Not one of them, one of them – the Russians.”

“Oh, them? No I’m not,” he looked relieved and embarrassed at the same time. However, we were going around in circles.

“So what do we do next?” I asked.

“You allow the Russians to capture you.”